The Silence

Johan spends a lot of time in this movie walking in silence around empty halls. A lot of my own childhood I spent doing much the same thing. I explored things aimlessly and had a lot of private experiences, plenty of times seeing things i shouldn’t have seen and didn’t come to understand until much later. Maybe this film is that for me right now. It’s my favorite of the trilogy and very clearly the one that will leave its largest impact on me. One thing that gets me is that if i didn’t come into this film knowing it was part of a thematic trilogy about God maybe i wouldn’t have even known his presence was here in the film. Maybe it isn’t. I maybe would’ve seen this film as one about disconnection, ab duel identity, ab neglect. It definitely can be about those things. Bergman reiterates time and time again that God’s evidence on Earth is love. The physical manifestation of love is sex, and through Anna we experience sex and sexual tension often.  Aside from Persona this may be my favorite Bergman film visually. So many of the compositions and camera movements in this film are stunning. thank u Nykvist 🙌🙌 I want to watch this again soon.